Exhale
by ButterfliesAndCoffee
Summary: Jenn Frost had known her friends for forver. She didn't expect any surprises on the trip they took to Sootopolis. But with Jenn's worst enemy on the boat and her friends all with big secrets, Jenn doesn't know if they'll be friends by the time the ship ar


Exhale  
  
By Gothic*Penguin  
  
Hey y'all!  
  
This is my first flames so try for no flames, k? If you hated something about it, use constructive critism instead. I'm a sensitive person, can't handle flames.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in here. Pokemon belongs to Satoshi Tijari and the characters Jenn, Samuel, Josh, Lizy, Nathan, Taylor, Wes, Patrick, Willy and Tyler belong to the author DarkAngelTorchic. Yes, she gave me permission to write this and you can e-mail her and she'll tell you that she knew about his, liked the idea and gave me permission to use her original characters.  
  
Jenn blinked. Watching her friend Sam (also known as Samuel Ryan Brady but he socked her in the head last time she called him that) flirt was an awkward sight. He should've picked up something from watching her flirt with the courtesy clerk at Safeway. Jenn smiled at the thought of the guy. He was cute, but she was never going to see him again so why not flirt with him?  
  
"It is an odd sight, isn't it?" Josh said, coming up from behind his auburn haired best friend. Jenn laughed and nodded. "He should know something from being around YOU so often but he doesn't pick up anything. It's kinda sad watching him. I feel bad that he doesn't know how to flirt at age 15..." Josh's voice drifted off. "Speaking of ages, isn't the famous Jenn Frost's sweet sixteenth birthday coming up soon? A week, I think. Right?"  
  
"Oh my God! You remembered! I didn't think that you or Lizy or Sam were even going to remember my birthday!" squealed the teenager. She smiled at her best friend for almost 2 years.  
  
Out of the blue, Jenn decided to bring up a new subject. "Josh, do you realize that your pet goldfish died a year ago from Thursday?" she asked. Josh instantly got a sad look. Jenn slapped herself in the mouth. "Oh my God, Josh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you upset!" she cried.  
  
Josh quickly lost the sad look. "You actually fell for that?" he asked with a sly grin aimed at Jenn. His friend slapped him on the arm. "OW!!" Jenn glared at him.  
  
"You retard," Jenn lightly scolded. She rolled her eyes and smacked him again out of pure boredom. She always enjoyed smacking Josh; it was much more fun to smack Josh than it was to smack any other person. Jenn didn't know why, though. But then again, Jenn didn't know all that much, so it figured that she didn't know why smacking Josh was so much funny.  
  
"Jenn and Josh, stop flirting with each other and let's hurry up and get part way to Sootopolis! Our ship is getting ready to leave! Sam, stop pretending like you know how to flirt and come on, you dumbass!" Lizy yelled at the boy that she had known since first grade but had never talked to until she had gotten to travel with her three new best friends.  
  
Sam pouted until they had boarded the cruise ship where he was too amazed to pout about Lizy laughing at him about his pathetic flirting skills. The ship was the most elegant and luxurious thing any of the group had ever seen. They had walked into their rooms and had been amazed about the perfection.  
  
"I want to see the rest of the ship!" Jenn cried after seeing the cabinet full of mints (Which, by the way, had just awed her more than anything else, even more than the collection of Simple Plan, Yellowcard, New found Glory, Good Charlotte, Bowling for Soup, Hoobastank, Outkast, Usher, D12, Blink 182, Story of the Year, Chingy, Linkin Park and Three Days Grace CD's)  
  
"I do, too," said Lizy, who was speechless over the cabinet of gum and pictures of cute boys (*coughcough* her new internet bf Justain who is really cute *coughcough*). Jenn and Lizy pinky-linked (something me and my friends do when we're happy) over their discoveries.  
  
Jenn and Lizy started off on the boat and Sam and Josh had no choice but to follow their blonde-brained (our group saying for stupid) friends. But they quickly bumped into them for the girls had stopped in the middle of the hallway, shocked and disgusted.  
  
"Hey, what gives?" asked an annoyed Josh. Jenn was speechless, afraid that if she opened her mouth, she would be sick. She pointed at the object of horror, the one that she and her friends called Prince Uncharming.  
  
Josh and Sam looked in the direction that Jenn was pointing in. They raised their eyebrows. The person (if you could call him that) was Nathan Pickens, Jenn's worst rival since the first day in town, the first day on her journey.  
  
"You know, if Jenn felt sick that she was just looking at him, she ought to be really sick with what's happening," Sam said, keeping his eye on Nathan. Josh looked over and he learned that Sam was right. Nathan was making his way over to the group, keeping a special eye on Jenn.  
  
"Look at Nathan. He hasn't stopped looking at Jenn. He totally likes her," whispered Josh, feeling incredibly sorry for his best friend. Sam wrinkled his nose in disgust, also feeling bad for the girl that he was supposed to go to the 6th grade dance with and now was his best friend.  
  
It was if Josh could read his mind. "Why did you cut your date with Jenn, anyways? You two could be going out right now if you hadn't done that." Sam sighed, trying to put behind his past with Jenn. The broken date, the fight and the actual dance.  
  
FLASHBACK TO 6TH GRADE  
  
It was first hour, Language Arts, and they had a long class period that day. Jenn had sat clear on the other side of the room, talking to the gay guy in class (Isaac Martin) and the preppiest girl in the 6th grade that no one actually liked (Kate Ruiz). Why, no one knew, but her best friend hadn't switched into the class yet so she didn't have anyone else, considering her friends were in other classes.  
  
Sam had the biggest crush on her and only Tyler Smith and Chris Leonardo knew about it. His friends had urged him to ask her to the dance but he was too shy back then and couldn't handle it if she said no or if she laughed at him.  
  
Sam saw Kate stand up and go over and talk to Casey Race. "Will you go out with Jenn?" she asked. Sam was heartbroken and looked at Jenn. Her normally smiling face was a mix of horror and anger. Casey nodded.  
  
Sam could hear Jenn's next comments from all the way across the room. "Kate, how could you? I didn't say yes to that dare and I don't like Casey. Please go break up with him for me. And be nice about it, Kate," she instructed.  
  
So Kate did as she was told and went over and broke up with Casey for Jenn. You could see the depression in Casey's face. Who wouldn't be depressed though? Jenn was the prettiest girl in class, and she was a lot nicer than most of them. But she was boy crazy and talked too much and was always loud and funny.  
  
The next person that Kate came over to was Sam. "Sam, will you go to the Winter Dance with Jenn?" she had asked him. He looked over Kate's shoulder to look at Jenn's expression. She was blushing furiously and looking away.  
  
Sam, feeling fortunate and lucky, grinned. "Sure," he said. Kate went back over to Jenn and told her of the news. Jenn looked from Kate to Sam in amazement and squealed. Sam blushed again, not believing that he had gotten a date with Jenn.  
  
Time passed and Sam grew more unsure each hour. Kate had asked Casey out for Jenn and that had been a dare. So what if Jenn had been dared to go with him too? Or what if she was using him for something? After all, Sam's best friend was Tyler smith, the guy that all the girls wanted to go out with, so what if Jenn was using Sam just to get closer to Tyler?  
  
And with that in mind, Sam made his final decision. He broke his date with Jenn, as painful as it was to do. Jenn had walked into Language Arts days later and Kate bombed her with the news as soon as she walked in. "Sam wants to break your date," Kate announced to her before she even had time to put her stuff down. Jenn looked from Sam to Kate with tears in her eyes, but Sam couldn't even look at her.  
  
Jenn stopped by his locker later. "Sam, we need to talk," she had told him. "I just wanted you to know that I wasn't using you. I'm not that kind of person. And it wasn't a dare. And if you still want to go to the dance with me," she said, her voice breaking, "Then I still really want to go with you. But if you don't want to, then I'm not going to make you." He looked at her for the first time, and she did the same. A tear slid down her face. "I got to go," she said, running into her third hour class in tears.  
  
Sam had never felt more guilty. He should've told her that he still wanted to go with her more than anything. But somehow, Sam knew that it was over with Jenn. He had hurt her more than he had ever wanted to and she probably didn't want anything to do with him now.  
  
Flash forward to the dance. Sam had ended up volunteering to work on the dance and run the concession stand with a guy named Nick Shiltzer. Nothing had changed between Jenn and Sam, but Sam was looking forward to seeing Jenn at the dance.  
  
The first half of the dance, Sam ran the raffle ticket booth. Jenn had been unable to find another date and walked in with her friend Mikayla. Jenn grabbed a raffle ticket from Sam and filled it out with her scrawly handwriting. Sam grabbed it from her. "Hi, Jenn," he said as cheerfully as possible. That made Jenn start to cry again and she ran into the girls' bathroom. Mikayla cast a glare at him and ran after her friend.  
  
Later on, Jenn was walking around near the concession stand where Sam was walking, with her friend Chloe. Jenn and Chloe were talking, more than likely about the situation with Jenn and Sam, and Jenn was almost in tears. As she walked up to the counter to get a Diet Pepsi, Sam heard Jenn tell Chloe that she was having the worst time ever and shouldn't have come that night. That made Sam feel even more guilty.  
  
Jenn glared at him. "Jenn, I'm sorry," said Sam truthfully to the girl who he was supposed to be there dancing and talking with.  
  
Jenn's eyes filled with tears again. "I can't believe that I liked you," she said quietly. "You're definitely not worth my time, Sam Brady." She started walking away but then turned back and unexpectedly flipped Sam off.  
  
That was the last he had seen of Jenn. The next Monday at school, she had moved and was gone from his life. He had never told her what he truly felt about her, never apologized for everything he had done.  
  
END FLASHBACK  
  
It was amazing that Jenn and Sam had been able to put that all behind them and become best friends. And with Nathan here PLUS the fact that Sam liked Jenn again, things were going to get very interesting. 


End file.
